Kingdom Hearts: Final Save
by SJBushido
Summary: A 4-part tale staring the Princesses of Heart. Things have gone wrong in Traverse Town and only the Princesses of Heart are left to fix it.
1. Chapter 1

"Get her on the table!" Shouted Aurora.

The moogles, small creatures covered in white fur sporting bat wings and a red ball hanging just above their head, flew back as the group of girls piled into the item shop. Snow White and Ariel held a bleeding Belle between them.

"Close the door, Alice!" Screamed Kairi. She brought her keyblade down on the head of a heartless. The darkness gave way to a mist of green and blue. Alice leaned into the door with all of her small weight. Her feet slipped on the blood on the floor and the door allowed three more heartless in before the door was closed.

"Kairi! Help!" Jasmine fell back from the table as the three heartless poured into the table where Belle lay. "Stop them!"

"My leg! Get them off my leg!" Belle pleaded with the room, but only Kairi's keyblade had any hope of dispatching the intruders. When the last heartless exploded it revealed the exposed bone of Belle's leg eaten almost up to the knee.

"When did they turn feral?" Asked Ariel. Her dress was slowly being stained by Belle as her hands clamped around the thigh to keep the princess in yellow from passing out. Of all the princesses of heart, she probably had the most experience with the harsh realities of nature. Not all is clear blue under the sea.

"Sora, Goofy, and Donald went after Ansem and then everything went to hell." Kairi dropped the keyblade and it disappeared before it hit the ground. Aurora tied a tourniquet around Belle's leg. Ariel relaxed her grip.

"When are they coming back?" asked Alice. She double checked the lock on the door. The heartless banged and clawed at the door. Tiny hands reached under door to try and slide in. A light flashed and the heartless' advance was repelled by a barrier.

"I don't know. I don't even know where Cid is. I thought other people lived in this town. Where are they?" asked Kairi. No one had an answer. Belle was shrieking in pain.

"I can't take much more of that screaming." Snow White said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, Snow." Belle reached out and took Snow White's hand in her own. Her grip tightened so hard that Snow's pale skin turned blue beneath the grip. "Heartless ate my FUCKING LEG! Sorry I can't suffer in silence like your little forest creature friends!"

"Ow! Let go!" Snow yanked her hand out of Belle's weakening grasp.

"Kairi, Alice, and Snow. Check the rest of the shop to make sure everything is locked up. I don't want any more surprises," said Aurora. There was ice in her voice when she said Snow. Enough to send a shiver down the princess's spine. The three pulled down the ladder and went upstairs without a word.

"I am going to kick her with my good leg. I swear," moaned Belle. She turned onto her side, wetting the rest of her dress's skirt in her own pool of blood. Belle was beyond caring.

"Just focus on staying awake," said Jasmine. Turning to Ariel, she asked, "Can you take the stuffing out of any cushion you can find? We'll use it as gauze."

The room was silent except for the labored breathing of the daughter of an inventor.

"What are we doing?" The girls turned to look at the woman who had asked the question so softly. Aurora was looking down at her rust colored hands before seeing the other girl's attention had turned to her. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

Upstairs

"Kairi, can I ask you a question?" Alice jiggled the handle to a door to check if it would open. It had only a little give. The item shop was built on a slope, uneven as it was, and the back door lead out to the ground floor of that level. It offered little protection from the myriad of heartless banging on the walls.

"What is it?" The keyblade wielder looked at the blond girl who didn't seem much older than her.

"I thought there was only one keyblade wielder. My memories are hazy, from the spell Maleficent had us under, but I remember your friends Sora and Riku fighting over who could hold the keyblade. Why do you have it?"

Kairi looked down at her hand and tightened it slightly. The keyblade materialized in her grip before she could close her hand. Its power hummed in her grip. She could feel the weight and impression the previous two owners left on the rounded blade. It felt like she was holding her friends. "I can feel them in the keyblade when I hold it, but I can't feel them in my heart."

"Maybe they lost," said Snow White. She stood by the ladder with her arms crossed and her back to the wall. Her black hair was a mess of tangles from her escape. "That could be why the Heartless are going crazy."

"I don't want to believe that," said Kairi. She bit down on her lip. "If they lost I would have felt it. It just feels like they are gone. I've never felt this before."

Downstairs

Ariel poked the red fluffy ball hanging above the head of the moogle. It swayed back and forth independent of the slow bobbing of the moogle as its wings flapped to keep it airborne. Otherwise it remained silently watching. It was one of several scattered throughout the room. Ariel had tried talking to each one. Each one had made a 'kupo' sound and hovered there. She was fascinated by how closely the red of the moogle matched the red of her own hair.

"I don't want to be 'that girl' but this place is pretty sparse. I grew up in a palace, but whenever I went out to the bazaar they would always be packed to the brim with goods. This place is barren," said Jasmine.

The bottom floor of the item shop had several glass display cases. All of them were empty. Aurora looked under the table they had placed Belle on and saw the same was true for all the shelves there as well. "Nothing here either."

"Finally, a shopping trip I can afford." Belle now lay on the couch with one leg planted on the floor and the other propped up over the edge of the lift to keep it elevated. She forced out a small laugh, "Really? No one thought that was funny? Not even a laugh from the clock?"

"Is she going to be ok?" Asked Ariel.

"She is ok enough to hear you talk about her," replied Belle. She tried to prop herself up on an arm to get a look at the land bound ocean princess, but a surge of pain caused her to fall back and grab her leg. "Damn it that hurts."

"Fire!" Aurora put both of her hands in front of her and lined them up with the fireplace that stood next to the couches. A ball of flame spouted from her hands and lit the dry logs.

"Neat trick," said Jasmine.

"It helps to grow up with fairy god mothers."

"And here I thought I was going to die in this shivering cold," said Belle. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. "I think I know what comes next. You're going to cauterize my leg, aren't you?"

"You are very well read. Yes. To stop the bleeding I need to close the wound," answered Aurora.

"How do you 'cauterize' a wound?" asked Ariel. A life time under water had not prepared her for anything dealing with fire.

"You are about to find out. I'm going to need you two to hold Belle still." Jasmine and Ariel went to Belle. Ariel's eyes grew wide when Aurora grabbed one of the burning logs from the fire place.

Upstairs

"There it is again! Every time I see a heartless go flat and try to get in, there's some kind of barrier that keeps them out," said Alice. She pointed to the window where a teeming mass of heartless knocked against the glass with ineffective hands.

"I think we are doing it," said Kairi. "We are the 7 princesses of Heart. Maybe being together puts up a barrier around the shop?" She pressed her face up against the glass of the window. The black mass parted and a blue heartless stared back at her. It slammed its head against the glass again and again as the other heartless crowded back around it. "I can't feel any vibrations through the glass."

All the girls heard Belle's scream. Kairi fell back from window with a gasp of her own. The keyblade appeared in her hand. Clear changed to white to blue to red and to black as the barrier outside weakened. Lights in the shop dimmed for only a brief moment then returned to full force when the barrier cycled back to a clear shield.

All three climbed down the ladder. Snow white stepped off the final wrung and immediately brought her hand to cover her mouth and nose. Kairi jumped off half way to land next to her. Alice was the last to climb off. She was overpowered by the smell of burning flesh and wood. Unable to help herself, she doubled over and wretched.

Belle lay motionless on the couch. Smoke rose from where her leg ended. Aurora dropped the extinguished log to the floor.

Seven were now six.


	2. Chapter 2

"What did you do?" The tip of Kairi's keyblade pointed at Aurora's face. It shook in her hand from the restraint she exercised to not beat the blond princess's teeth in. Snow White placed a hand on her shoulder, steadying the young girl.

"She would have bled out on the couch if we didn't do it," said Aurora. "I had do something. I don't see any of you stepping up to lead. I'm doing the best I can!"

"You killed her." Snow White's hand was still bruised from Belle's last grip. A dark purple and blue contrast to the red cheeks on either side of her hand that covered mouth. "She was alive. We went upstairs. Now she's dead. You. Killed. Her."

"Calm down, Kairi. It was what Belle wanted. She knew what we were doing," said Jasmine.

"Is it true?" Alice asked Ariel. Areal sat by Belle's side. Silent. Belle's eyes were still open, her face twisted in pain, and her leg smoking from the burn.

"I think so?" She looked from Belle's face to Aurora's then to meet Alice's gaze. "Everything happened so fast. Aurora shot fire from her hands, used some words I don't know, and then ordered me and Jasmine to hold Belle down. I didn't know she was going to die." Ariel's face grew pale as she told her story. The more thought she gave it, the worse it sounded coming out of her mouth. "I was worried she was too hurt. She was joking about talking clocks."

"You knew magic?" Kairi swung the keyblade at Aurora. Aurora stepped back as it sailed through the air in front of her. On her back swing Alice and Snow caught her and held her arms back. "Why didn't you use it earlier? You could have kept this from happening!"

All eyes turned to Aurora.

"I know some. It is limited and, in case you have not noticed, there are no items here to restore the magic. One look around here can tell anyone that this place is empty. I have to be careful with when I use my magic."

"Saving Belle from the heartless wasn't enough of an emergency?" Asked Jasmine.

"You've seen them move. On a good day they never stay still. Today they have become ravenous beasts that were eating away at Belle. If I missed I would have burned her alive."

"Looks like you found time to finish the job," said Snow White. Aurora slapped hard. No one was more shocked than Kairi, who until that moment, was being restrained by Snow White to keep her from beating Aurora within an inch of her life.

"I am Princess Aurora. Daughter of Stefan and Leah. First in line to the throne, blessed by fairies, gifted with magic, and not one to tolerate such accusations!"

"Stop. Just stop. This isn't getting us anywhere." Kairi relaxed her grip on the keyblade and it disappeared once more. The girls let her go. She drew in a deep breath in hopes that it would calm her nerves. "We can't change what happened, but I think we can all agree that no big decisions should get made without asking everyone. Next time you want to set something on fire, ask all of us."

Alice, Snow, Jasmine, and Areal nodded. Aurora crossed her arms and looked down at the small brown haired wielder of the keyblade. Words were poised on her lips but she closed her mouth and nodded as well.

"There's something you need to know," Alice moved a hand across Belle's face and closed her eyes. "When Belle died the barrier around this shop grew weaker. Now that everyone's stopped shouting I know for sure. It feels different. Like a weight on my shoulders got heavier. Can you all feel it?"

Jasmine closed to her eyes and took a deep breath. She placed a hand over her heart and let out the breath. She nodded, confirming what they all felt. Whatever inside of them was keeping the heartless out was now working harder to make up for Belle's absence.

"We are all going to die here if we don't find a way out," said Snow White.

"You shouldn't be so grim," said Areal.

"I shouldn't? We opened the door to Kingdom Hearts. We only escaped because of Sora and his friends. Where are they now?" asked Snow.

"Gone." Answered Kairi.

"Gone. Along with everyone else. I can't even see out the windows because there are so many heartless out there. Heartless that eat people!" Shouted Snow White. "And our great leader doesn't mind sacrificing us if it means she has a chance to escape later."

"You're not going to make things better by tearing down Aurora," said Ariel.

"If anyone has room to complain it's Snow. Both Aurora and Belle hurt her." Jasmine turned to look Aurora in the eyes. "You aren't the only princess here. I've been raised from birth to rule Agribah and it's people. I will forget more royalty than you will ever meet. I know a spoiled brat when I see one. Hit someone else in here and I'll kick you out."

"No one is opening that door. It'll break the barrier," said Alice. Her earlier slip up when closing the door was still fresh in her mind.

Kairi's closed hand summoned the keyblade once again. The sounds of the women around her quieted in her ears. They were talking in circles and Kairi didn't feel like trying to calm everyone down again. Maybe it was something adults just needed to do. Now that the blade hummed in her hands she could see a glowing circle next to the fire place. Kairi stepped into the circle and a display lit up in the air above her keyblade.

"Welcome to the save menu," said the closest Moogle. Kairi looked back over her shoulder, but the room was frozen in place. Aurora had a hand up with small flames licking at her open palm. Snow White had both arms in front of herself, already afraid of the magic princess's next action. Ariel had two hands wrapped around Aurora's arm trying to hold her back. Jasmine was taking a step to get between Aurora and Snow. Alice was frozen mid step as she backed away from the conflict.

"What is this?" Asked Kairi.

"The save menu. Would you like to repeat the tutorial?" asked the Moogle. It's bat wings flapped as it hung in the air, bobbing in the still room.

"Why did everyone stop moving?" asked Kairi.

"Only the keyblade wielder can move when the menu is open," replied the Moogle.

"I think, I'll hear the tutorial."

Kairi felt her entire world shift under her feet when the moogle explained the menu system. She looked down at the keyblade's display. There were three spaces. Two of them were filled. She checked the timer in the corner of the visual.

"The second file has a star next to it and the time is an hour ahead of the clock in the corner. Why is that?" asked Kiari.

"The current save is updated at the end of the mission."

"I think I understand. So I can make a save in the empty slot, right?" Kairi selected the empty space and the display changed to a red error message.

SAVE DATA CORRUPTED

"Error. World data has been corrupted. Attempting to fix. Error. Identifying source of corruption." The moogle's wings slowed down and the red ball changed to yellow. A moogle from the comer of the room started drifting forward to join the first.

"You are unable to save while your party has a corrupted element," the second moogle informed Kairi.

"The princesses of heart are pure. None of them are tainted by darkness," said Kairi.

"Not darkness. The system allows for darkness. Corruption. This world has been altered beyond the ability to save. As long as the corruption is in your party, you cannot save. Exiting system," said the new moogle. Both broke apart and dissolved in a burst of rainbow color.

Aurora closed her hand in shock from the rainbow burst. The other girls all took a quick breath in. The keyblade dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. Kairi was nowhere to be found.


	3. Chapter 3

Alice clutched her chest and fell to her knees. The other 4 women were in similar pain. The walls of the shop creaked and groaned under the teeming mass of heartless. They pressed in against the building and the glass windows began to crack. The fading colors of the barrier inverted and returned to clear once more. The girls were left on the floor gasping for air.

"I can't," said Snow. She collapsed onto the floor and rolled onto her back. "It's too much. I can't get up."

"We can do this. Together." Areal reached down and grabbed Snow's hand. Aurora leaned against the table, breathing heavily, and sweat visible on her brow. Alice remained on her hands and knees with her face hidden by her hair. Jasmine struggled to her feet then fell back down to take a seat on the smaller couch.

"How are you even standing?" asked Jasmine. The eyes of the room turned to the red haired princess.

"You get used to pressure when you can touch the bottom of the sea. I guess that's what's helping me stand," replied Ariel. Snow squeezed her hand in thanks and took a seat next to Jasmine.

"I need a minute," said Alice. "Just one minute where the world isn't ending around me so I can think. Can you give me just that?" She stood up defiantly. Her hand slapped the window. The crack grew even deeper. "How about it? One full minute."

"Alice," Ariel's hand squeezed her shoulder gently.

"No! Shut up!" The crack spread out from Alice's hand and into the other windows. Light leaked out through the cracks as the barrier shifted from clear to red. The dim red light filled every corner of the room. The entire room held its breath.

Jasmine pulled the young girl into an embrace. Light returned to the room. Aurora let out a breath she didn't know she had held. Alice burst into tears. Her sobbing did not stop with Jasmine's touch, but it quieted down as the dark skinned woman petted the length of her hair.

"Is it ok to cry now? I've been holding it in," said Snow White.

There were no clocks in the shop. The silence was only broken by the occasional cry or whimper. Aurora attempted to pick up the keyblade, but it stayed firmly rooted to the ground just outside the yellow circle. Each of them took a turn trying to pick it up. It budged for no one. It remained like a grave maker for the final key blade wielder to visit Traverse Town.

"Jasmine, can I speak to you upstairs?" asked Aurora. The corners of Jasmine's eyes tightened at being called out in front of the rest of the girls, but knowing how difficult Aurora could be, she decided it wasn't worth fighting her on this point.

With the two women upstairs, Snow leaned towards Ariel and asked softy, "Do you think they are going to escape?"

"Without us?" Alice's face turned from despondent to panicked.

"We are the princesses of heart. No one is going to escape alone. This barrier proves that we are stronger together," said Ariel.

"Right. Of course." Snow rubbed her cheek where Aurora had struck her earlier. "This place is kind of a mess. Maybe it'll look better after I clean it up."

The couch was stained in blood from Belle. A trail leading back to the door had dried into the wood. The log that had ended Belle's life still lay beside her. A pile of sick remained from where Alice had come down the ladder and thrown up. A pile of ash covered the save point where Kairi and 2 moogles disintegrated.

Upstairs

"Which one?"

"I thought you might know," said Aurora. Time might have stopped in the room for Kairi's conversation, but Aurora believed she might be the only one who overheard what was said. The other girls had not given any indication that they noticed the frozen world. She laid it all out for Jasmine once they were upstairs. "There isn't much here. It has to be one of the girls."

"One of the princesses of heart corrupted the world?" asked Jasmine.

"Are we even sure each of us is a Princess of Heart?" Aurora asked in return. "Alice wasn't even a princess in her world. It can't be Belle or Kairi. They are both gone."

"We were all rescued by Sora before Kairi brought us back here."

"Answer my question," Pressed Aurora. "It has to be Snow White. Who's your pick?"

"Of the girls left? My only guess would be..."

Downstairs

"No way," said Ariel.

"I'm telling the truth! They were living cards that walked and talked. They had a queen, who was not a card, and a court. That land was completely mad. I was underground, but everything was bright as day. Nothing made sense there."

"That sounds so exciting," said Ariel.

"The queen wanted me dead," sighed Alice.

"You too? Sounds like my step mother," said Snow White.

Both girls looked surprised. Snow dipped a torn rag in a bucket she had filled with water from the wash room. Like the rest of the shop, only a shell of what should be there was actually in the closet, but that was enough for her to start cleaning. The rag had come from the bed sheet. No one was going to sleep.

"A magic mirror convinced her that I would grow up to be the 'fairest of them all' so she tried to abandon me in the woods. When that didn't work she poisoned my food. She's kind of a bitch."

"Fairest?" asked Alice.

"Where I come from that means, beautiful," answered Snow White.

"You are fairly good at running your mouth," Aurora said once she had stepped down from the ladder. "So at least you have that."

"You are very beautiful," said Alice. Ariel nodded. Snow looked up from the floor with a smile. Her face was flushed from the exertion of trying to get the blood off the floor. Her fingers hurt from the scrubbing, but the dried pool remained soaked into the floor. She found a small bit of wood flooring that stuck out from the rest and dug at it with her fingernail. Her finger nail peeled back and skittered across the floor. She drew her hand to her chest it in pain.

"Are you alright?" Asked Jasmine. She picked up one of the rags and twisted the water out of it. She stopped just before dunking it in the bucket to wash it off. It was perfectly clean already. Jasmine wrapped the rag around Snow White's finger. "Put some pressure on it."

"I remember," snapped Snow. "You all said the same thing to Belle, but look at her! She's dead!"

"It's just one finger," said Alice. "No one has ever died from that."

"Well," Aurora unconsciously rubbed a finger along her lower lip, "you should be ok as long as you weren't cursed. Have you made any witches or faeries mad recently?"

"What does Maleficent qualify as?" asked Snow.

"Stop teasing the poor girl," said Jasmine. Her hand squeezed harder over the rag, seeing the red blossom out over the torn white bed sheet. It slowed down only under pressure, but it didn't show any sign of stopping.

"The floor won't budge," said Snow White. "I thought I was cleaning it, but nothing was coming off. So I tried breaking off a splinter. When the splinter didn't budge I tried putting as much force into it as I could. I didn't think," Snow was cut off.

"There's a surprise. Snow White didn't think," jabbed Aurora.

"Aurora!" Jasmine and Alice shouted in unison.

"Stop defending her. She has to be corruption. She's like a doll that you can't fix, and just like a doll there's nothing between her ears." Aurora held up a hand as bits of frost started swirling around her fingertips. "Step away from her, Jasmine."

"You said we would wait to be sure," Jasmine held fast in her position even as the rag in her hand soaked through with blood of Snow White.

"Stop! Something is very wrong here. Things keep happening that make no sense!" Cried Alice.

"I'll explain everything after I ice the corruption. Blizzard!"

Jasmine pulled Snow out of the way of the killer cold spell and to the floor. The fire place extinguished with a burst of steam. The room filled with a mist of sweaty soot blinding most of the girls. Jasmine's grip on Snow White slipped when the girl pulled away from the dark skinned princess.

"What happened?" coughed Alice.

"Snow! Don't" Cried Ariel.

"Bliz-" the spell was muffled mid-sentence.

Through the thickening black fog, a loud crack reverberated against the table, then all the movement stopped. The item shop shuddered under the sound of a deep rumbling horn. The barrier cycled once more and when it returned to clear the sound of heartless banging against the walls and windows was now audible. The remaining three women struggled to breathe as black closed in around them.


	4. Chapter 4

Alice felt the weight of the world on her heart and it pinned her to the floor. Jasmine rolled onto her back but did not get up. Her breaths came fast and ragged. Ariel looked down at the two girls, her arms crossed under her chest, and then put her foot into Jasmine's side.

"It was you," whispered Jasmine. She clutched her side in pain and rolled over onto her stomach. "You are the corruption."

"I prefer, survivor, but the world magic calls me corrupt," said Ariel.

"I think I understood the Cheshire cat better than you two nutters," hissed Alice. She brought herself up to her hands and knees. Her vision struggled to pick out the two soot covered girls from the ash covered room. Darkness pressed in from outside and now the room was covered in a thin film of ash that brought it to match. "How can you even move?"

"I like you Alice," Ariel dusted off the blond girl's hair and weight of her hand was enough to make Alice fall back down to the ground. "That's why I'm going to keep you around to support the barrier. If you can't tell, I just don't have the heart for it." Ariel couldn't help but laugh at her own joke.

"She's not a princess of heart," explained Jasmine. "Ariel is doing something to break the world."

"Aurora thought she was so fancy with her fairies magic, but she's never witnessed the witch of the sea. Our knowledge is from the old ones and the magic is even older. She could play with the elements. Our magic touches the fabric of reality." Ariel raised her arms and twirled a few times. "You all would not even be alive it if were not for me and you dare call me corrupt."

"You're scaring me," cried Alice. "What was the point of this if we all die?" Each tear that rolled down her cheeks watched away a line of ash.

"I'm not waiting to find out!" Jasmine lunged for Ariel. She knocked the girl to the floor and they both rolled into the wall. Jasmine grabbed Ariel's wrists and pinned them above her head.

"You shouldn't be able to move!" Screamed Ariel.

"I can when I close off my heart," Jasmine said. Her hands gripped Ariel's wrists even harder as the young sea princesses struggled beneath her. "It's probably something you would learn with age. I just don't see you getting any older. Aurora! Finish her!"

"Thunder!" Lightning shot out the hand of the tall woman covered in black ash.

Ariel rolled with Jasmine. Jasmine was hit by the thunder spell and the electricity caused her to fall off of Ariel and arch in pain. Ariel touched the girl's forehead and she froze in place, wracked in pain, and trapped in that instant.

"A stop spell. I should have seen it earlier when the maid broke her nail. You can freeze things in place," said Aurora.

"It was too much to hope that Snow White would have taken you out," said Ariel. "Alice, it looks like your princess friends left all the heavy lifting to you. Alice?" Ariel looked around, but she had trouble finding the small blond girl. Given that her hair had been cleaned she should have been easy to spot in the dark room.

"No one is dead. I simply froze her heart. I needed to know who was corrupting this world. Now you need to go. Fire!"

"Stop!" Ariel could barely get the words out fast enough to stop the fire that had engulfed her. The room was now lit in the eerie glow of the orange fire as the flame princess closed in on Aurora.

"Fire!" Nothing came from Aurora's out stretched hand. Her magic had run its course. Ariel laced her fingers in between Aurora's and leaned into whisper into her ear.

"Stop."

Everything in the room was still. The only noise was from the heartless scraping against the walls and the crack of embers from the fire place. Ariel's own orange glow outshone the embers. Embers from the bottom side of the log, a side of the log, that hadn't been exposed earlier.

"Alice? Are you trying to escape up a chimney?" Ariel picked her way across the room. She was careful not to touch anything that might catch fire. The flames around her had started to burn, but only the time magic held them in place.

"Stay back!" Shouted Alice.

"This chimney is wide, but how did you even get up there?" Asked an amazed Ariel. The younger girl's legs pressed against one end of the chimney while her back was propped up against the other side. Her knees had to be close to her chest for the girl to be that sideways.

"I have experience with tight places," said Alice. She inched further up, nearing the top of the brick shaft. Above was the dark night sky, devoid of stars, but also clear of heartless. "Just stay away!"

"I can't remake the world if you aren't here to keep the barrier up," said Ariel. She stooped down to get into the chimney and the logs around her feet caught a flame. Smoke trailed up slowly, distorted by the stopped time around Ariel.

"You are a cruel woman. I don't want a world you make. You let Snow try and clean when you knew it wouldn't make a difference and you played dumb when Belle was killed just to make the others mad," said an exhausted Alice. She gritted her teeth and shimmied up a few more inches. She felt a breeze coming from the top of the chimney.

"I did play dumb when Belle died, but I didn't stop the floor to be cruel. I stopped it to keep anyone from working the keyblade," explained Ariel. She put her hands on either side of the stone shaft and held herself in place as her feet lifted off the ground to wedge in the corners. She was climbing much faster than the final princess of heart.

Alice gasped. Heat radiated from Ariel's flames and the fire below. Her feet slipped and she slid down half a foot to almost be with in Ariel's grasp.

"Come down, this has got to be killing you," said an exasperated Ariel. "I really do like you. I want you to be there when I remake this world."

"I wish I believed you," Alice slid to the side of the chimney and turned over the bucket she held in her lap. The water spilled down and douse the flames surrounding Ariel and the fire on the logs below. Ariel pushed harder with her arms and legs but slid down an inch.

"You thought water would stop me? Me? Did you think I'd melt?" asked Ariel.

"No, but fire keeps them out."

"Them?"

Alice closed her hands over her chest and let out a slow breath. Her focus was rewarded as the weight of the world was lifted from her shoulders. The barrier above her shattered and heartless began to swarm in. Heartless streamed down the chimney, past Alice, and onto Ariel. She each stopped heartless she pushed off was replaced by two more as they continued to pour in. The burns from Aurora's fire called out the mindless creatures in the same way Belle's leg had lured them in when they had broken past the door.

Alice slid down the chimney and scurried out of the way of the heartless, taking refuge at the save point, as they flooded the room. Those that could not get at Ariel searched out nearby hearts. Alice held her breath in hopes that she could keep her own heart closed off long enough to outlast the water princess. Her control slipped and several heartless heads turned towards her. They all turned back to Ariel when the cries silenced. The heartless' mouths opened wide and sharp teeth tore at her flesh.

The underwater princess's blood shimmered on the ground. The keyblade budged under Alice's resting hand. Joy surged in her and with that feeling her heart opened up once more. The heartless turned to look at her, but the menu above the keyblade had already taken shape. The room's color pallet changed to hues of blue.

Charging heartless hung midair, poised to rip the young girl apart. Through the gaps in the crowded room she could several of them still tearing at the inside of Areal. They slowly turned to look at her. They moved despite everything else in the room being held still.

"Oh no. No, no no no no no no." Alice stepped out of the yellow save point and the entire room began to move again. In an instant she was swarmed. Teeth sunk into her arms and legs. Claws ripped at her flesh. She lurched forward against the black tide, into the save point once more, but the heartless on her didn't stop.

Alice didn't have much time to look over the options. She knew her next move was probably her last. The menu responded to her will. The blue hue left the room and the item shop in Traverse Town was reclaimed by the heartless.

Gummy Ship

The ship hummed from all the machinery working to keep the floating vessel safe in suspended above Traverse town high above the world. Its cold floor was a stark contrast to the warm blood pooling around Alice. Kairi knelt down next to the dying princess and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Alice? Can you hear me?" she asked. Alice shuddered and coughed. Each cough brought on a series of convulsions that shook her entire being.

"Kai-ri?" Her mind struggled to accept what she saw before her. Kairi and two moogles were in the room along with Alice. Each with a sad look on their face. The moogles backed off when Kairi moved in closer. She turned the princess over and rested the blond head in her lap.

"Its ok, Alice. You did good. It's going to be Ok."

"Ariel. She said she saved us, but she was corrupted."

"I know. We were trapped in the Keyblade. We saw it all," said Kiari.

Alice closed her eyes and felt relief for the first time that day. Her heart felt unburdened. And then darkness. Kairi held the girl for hours. She knew what she came next, but for now, she just held Alice and wept.


End file.
